What Are Three Reasons Why Exercise Is Important?

Many people know that exercise is an activity that can improve the person’s health. However, many people lack the motivation to make exercise a priority. Weight loss, improved cardiovascular health, and coping with stress are three reasons why exercise is important.

One of the most common reasons people exercise is to promote weight loss or maintain a fit body. Exercise causes weight loss by burning calories and adding muscle. Muscle burns more calories than fat. Adding muscle means that the body will burn more calories even when the person is not exercising.

Exercise also causes weight loss by boosting the person’s metabolism. Often, people do not need to drastically reduce calories in their diets to lose weight if they are exercising in combination with other activities to boost their metabolism like avoiding simple carbohydrates and eating small meals and snacks every two to three hours beginning with eating breakfast within a half hour of waking.

Losing weight with exercise and a sensible diet can help prevent illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease. Although the cause and effect of exercise, maintaining a healthy body weight, and disease is not as simple as being able to avoid diseases with exercise and weight loss, many people see the benefits of reducing their risks for these diseases.

Cardiovascular health can be improved with aerobic exercise. When people hear “aerobic exercise,” they often think of aerobics workouts. Aerobic exercise includes other forms of exercise that increases the heart rate like walking, swimming, and running. Improving cardiovascular health can help prevent heart disease. Some sources say that the increased circulation from exercise improves the person’s skin tone and complexion.

Exercise is an effective coping skill for reducing stress for many people. Exercising is often recommended for people who have anxiety disorders or mood disorders like depression. Stress aggravates those conditions, so patients with those disorders are encouraged to use many coping skills and relaxation techniques.

Even if a person is not prone to anxiety or does not have a mood disorder, stress management can be beneficial. Many physicians and researchers recognize that stress can make a person susceptible to illness and disease. The link between stress and disease has been studied quite extensively, but no definitive relationship has been identified. Whether or not a person acquires an illness or develops a disease tends to be a complex process that can involve heredity, the immune system, overall health, and environmental factors including stress.